Lemurian Lake: an unusual story of popularity
The unique Lemurian lake in the south of the Kherson region has recently attracted more and more tourists – with the unusual pink color of the water, from which it is impossible to look away, especially at sunset, and its medicinal properties, for which people come here to be treated for skin diseases, nervous, cardiovascular systems, musculoskeletal system and the like. Ukrinform wrote earlier about the pink lake phenomenon. But being in the sunny Kherson region and getting to know the locals who are now actively taking tourists, we could not help but wonder how it all started? The story, it turns out, is unique – in it miraculously intertwines legends, happy chance, human industriousness and perseverance.
There was a village in the Tavrian steppe …
The mysterious Kherson lake, known for its healing properties, has always attracted tourists. But for those who wanted to swim in the lake there was one problem – where to stay? After all, it is located directly in the steppe, 100 km from Kherson and seven from the nearest village of Grigorovka, Chaplinsky district. It is this village today that is experiencing wonderful metamorphoses due to the influx of vacationers.
Sergei Klischevsky, chairman of the Prisivash rural united territorial community (OTG), which includes Grigorovka, says that one case helped start green tourism in the village. “Once a woman came to our village with a boy suffering from cerebral palsy. She wanted to treat a child with water and mud from our lake, and they needed someone to stay with. I walked almost halfway, asked people, but no one was in a hurry to take them to me I had to persuade my mother-in-law to accept them for at least one night, because the boy was really very sick.
Lemurian Lake Sergey Klischevsky
But the very next morning, at my gate stood a dozen indignant villagers with claims: “Well, only your own tourists?” I told them: “If you want, then please! Let’s come to you, what’s the problem? “This” provocation “worked, and little by little green tourism started in our village. By the way, my mother-in-law, as she received that guy from Odessa, still cannot stop,” the joke says Sergey Klischevsky.
Today in Grigorovka 40 tourists are receiving tourists. Interestingly, in these places it has long been a tradition to build two houses in one yard. Therefore, some of the locals didn’t even have to spend heavily on the construction of “hotels” to accommodate guests, except for repairs and construction. Today, the cost of living in such “mini-hotels” ranges from 100 to 300 hryvnias per person per day – depending on the service (with or without meals).
One of the estates of the village of Grigorovka where tourists are welcomed One of the estates of the village of Grigorovka where tourists are received
Of course, you should not expect too much European-quality repair, but the guest houses are clean, tidy, and have everything you need – household appliances, the Internet, kitchen utensils, etc. Local residents offer a shuttle service to the lake – they will take a car back and forth for 50 hryvnias. There are all conditions for tourists, the village even has a small shopping center, as well as an outpatient clinic and an emergency medical center.
55-year-old pensioner Valery Voloshin is one of those who recently joined the green tourism. “In the kitchen and in the rooms, we made repairs, and also built gazebos in the courtyard. The second year I have been hosting tourists, I take them inexpensively. The main thing is that people like it and they come here more often, and we will always be glad to see guests,” Valery says Vasilevich.
If not for the crash – then there would be no tourism
The history of the emergence of Lemurian Lake itself is even more interesting, and even looks more like a myth or legend. They say that on August 26, 1969, a military plane crashed in this place. When falling, it crashed deep into the ground and exploded. From a blow and an explosion, a deep funnel formed, which eventually filled with water of a healing spring that came to the surface. As a result, a body of water was formed, saturated with a variety of useful salts and minerals. Scientists believe that this is nothing more than the remains of the prehistoric Lemurian Sea, which washed the shores of the mythical sunken continent with a highly developed civilization. The salinity of the water in the lake reaches 270-300 g / liter, it is almost like in the famous Dead Sea. And the pink color is given to it by unicellular algae with the romantic name “Dunaliella Saltwater”, which produce beta-carotene under the influence of the sun (it is considered a source of youth). Therefore, not only water is healing, but also the mud that has formed on the lake.
Lemurian LakeLemurian Lake
Vladimir Vygovsky (CEO of Vygov, a company that manufactures medical and cosmetic products) claims that in 2003 he recovered precisely because of the healing properties of the lake: “15 years ago, on one of the summer days, I was seriously ill with a” bouquet “of chronic diseases They brought me here on a blanket. I turned to the best doctors across the country, as well as alternative medicine, and all in vain.
